1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to electronic data entry systems, and, more particularly, to a user interface, systems and methods for recording and entering data related to transactions on an trading floor.
2. Relevant Background
Securities, commodities and negotiable instruments are traded on various exchanges that strive to provide an efficient marketplace for the trading of products listed on the exchange. An “open outcry” auction market, such as a commodities exchange, provides floor trading facilities for the buying and selling of listed commodities.
Floor trading is generally confined to specified trading areas that are typically referred to as trading “pits” or “rings”. Within a trading ring, floor traders vary in the scope of their trading activities. Some floor traders trade only for their own proprietary accounts or for the proprietary accounts of their employer; other floor traders only execute orders on behalf of others; and some floor traders trade for proprietary accounts and also execute orders for others. For convenience, this document shall use the term “broker” to refer to floor traders engaging in any or all of the trading activities noted above.
Floor brokers congregate in the trading rings or pits on the exchange floor where they announce a “bid” price for an offer to buy and an “ask” price for an offer to sell. A trade in any particular commodity generally will occur at or within the spread for best bid and best ask prevailing in the trading ring at that time. The best ask price is the lowest price that a seller is willing to accept and a best bid price is the highest price that a buyer is willing to pay. Exchange employees confirm transaction prices for executed transactions and also confirm on an ongoing basis throughout the trading session the prevailing best bid and ask prices that are provided by the various brokers. Exchange employees strive to ensure that executed trades are posted with the Exchange and also undertake other activities that facilitate trades and that maintain a fair and orderly market.
In a commodity exchange, using the example of the execution of an order for an off-floor customer, such a transaction is initiated by a customer who places or has previously placed an order to buy or sell a particular commodity. The order is then conveyed to the customer's broker or another trader representing the customer's broker on the trading floor. In the case of a broker trading on the broker's own account, the transaction is initiated by the broker directly. Typically, brokers tend to trade and to specialize in the commodity or commodities that are traded within the same trading ring. Brokers are known to other brokers on the trading floor by an identifying number or short name. The brokers announce offers on the trading floor to implement their customer's orders. For each commodity that is listed for trading at a commodity exchange, the exchange will indicate the number of contract months, which are sometimes referred to as delivery months that are listed for that commodity, and different delivery months may trade separately at separate prices.
At an exchange using a “pitcard” system for entry of executed trades to the exchange, once a buying broker and selling broker agree on a price, the selling broker and/or buying broker record the transaction on a pad of paper or a multipart form that includes forms that are called “pitcard” and that may include other forms that are sometimes referred to as “trading cards”. The information that is recorded includes the commodity code, quantity, delivery month, price, as well as the ID number or name for the buyer's broker and seller's broker. At commodity exchanges using the pitcard system, the pitcard is physically thrown into the center of the trading ring by the buyer and/or seller, where it is collected by an exchange employee, clocked, and delivered to data entry personnel.
The extensive manual operations involved in the conventional trade recording system can lead to trade execution delays, illegibly transcribed orders, dropped slips, delayed delivery, and mismatches between buy-orders and sell orders that are not detected for some time. Although some exchange functions have been computerized, the basic activities of trade entry by brokers have posed problems for computerization. A root problem is that any transaction recordation system must support a peak level of trading volume of the exchange. In a stock exchange there is typically a specialist system in which each trader/broker handles a stock for a single company. Transactions are conducted between a relatively small number of individuals and so identifying and recording broker names/identifications is relatively easy. Moreover, in a stock exchange there is little variation in the type of information that must be captured for each transaction. Hence, even at very large transaction volumes the pace at which information is recorded and entered into the trading system is manageable.
In contrast, a commodity exchange such as the New York Mercantile Exchange (“NYMEX”) may be organized as an open system in which many traders (e.g., 100-200 individuals) are gathered at the trading pit for a given commodity. A particular broker may only be actively trading with a subset of 10-20 individuals. Because of the large number of traders, just entering and recording the broker identification for a particular transaction is difficult as compared to many trading floor environments. Further, each given commodity involves contracts in a variety of delivery months, and may involve derivative products such as options. As a result of these factors, the amount of information and pace at which that information must be recorded and entered by brokers/traders is significantly greater than in trading floor environments such as a stock exchange.
To date, the paper-based workflow described above remains the only effective way to record and enter transaction information in many commodity exchanges. The paper-based workflow relies on transaction information written quickly by traders using various shorthand techniques with symbols and markings that may be intelligible only to particular brokers or exchange employees familiar with the brokers involved in a transaction. In this environment, trying to capture pen strokes in an electronic device is problematic as accurately translating the hurriedly written pen strokes is so complex that only humans have been able to perform the task. On the other hand, having brokers type in information using keyboard/keypad interfaces is time consuming and does not support the rate at which information needs to be captured.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,625,583 issued to Silverman et al. describes a handheld trading system interface that enables entry of trade information on a trading floor of a financial exchange. The system described by Silverman presents a complex, multi-function interface that is specifically adapted for a stock exchange. Many features of the Silverman order entry interface are intended to emulate or simulate a paper trade recordation system. As a result, the Silverman system is not able to handle order entry at a pace necessary for high transaction volume environments such as a commodity exchange.
Accordingly, a need exists for wireless hand-held computers that can be used to exchange information with floor brokers. Further, there is a need for a trade entry interface that exhibits ease of use and allows brokers to enter trade information at least as fast if not faster than paper-based systems. Consequently, improved hand-held computer systems for trade entry are desired.